Bob Mueller finally caught up with Bob Bolus. Last Friday, the special prosecutor investigating Russian meddling in American politics indicted 16 Russian nationals and groups on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States.
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By Elizabeth Skrapits (Staff Writer)
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Published: January 28, 2014

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There might be more.

It's a startling revelation in the grand jury's rulings on Hugo M. Selenski, his attorney Shelley Centini and private investigator James Sulima.

"Authorities have linked the discovery of approximately a dozen deceased/destroyed human bodies at a Luzerne County residence to Selenski," the document says on the first page.

On the fifth page, it says, "Luzerne County authorities believe that Selenski was directly involved in the murder of approximately twelve human beings found burned and buried in a pit in his backyard."

Despite longtime rumors that the potential body count could run into the double digits, Mr. Selenski only faced charges on four homicides, and a purported fifth victim has not been identified.

Authorities, including District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, declined to comment because there is a gag order on the case.

Acting on a tip, police dug up the backyard of Mr. Selenski's Mount Olivet Road house on June 5, 2003, and found the bodies of Tunkhannock pharmacist Michael Jason Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Lynn Fassett.

On June 9, 2003, authorities revealed the finding of more human remains in and around a fire pit on Mr. Selenski's property, but they were so badly burned that pathologists and forensic anthropologists had to be called in.

Two of the charred sets of remains were identified as those of Adeiye Ossasis Keiler, 22, and Frank James, 29. The fifth set has not been identified.

Police scoured every inch of the 6-acre property, doing methodical searches, but did not announce the discovery of any more victims.

Paul Weakley, an alleged accomplice of Mr. Selenski, toured the property with police in June 2003, pointing out places he had seen bodies and bones. At the time, Mr. Weakley told police Mr. Selenski's dog was carrying the dismembered arm of a drug dealer from Binghamton, N.Y., around in its mouth some time during the summer of 2002, and that when Mr. Weakley worked on Mr. Selenski's water system that same summer, he saw the bodies of a woman and child in a well and bone fragments and a jawbone under the porch.

Mr. Weakley also implicated Mr. Selenski in the fall 2001 disappearance of Penn State student Hyun Jung "Cindy" Song, but charges were never filed and the case remains unsolved.

Prosecutors charged Mr. Selenski with fatally shooting Mr. Keiler and Mr. James in May 2003 and burning their bodies in his backyard.

But following a trial in March 2006 that attracted national attention, the jury found Mr. Selenski not guilty on all charges except two counts of abuse of a corpse.

Mr. Selenski was immediately rearrested and charged with the murders of Mr. Kerkowski and Ms. Fassett.

After seven years of delays, that trial is scheduled for March 3.

Mr. Selenski is currently in the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy, Schuylkill County, serving a sentence of 32½ to 65 years for a January 2003 home invasion and robbery in Monroe County.

Contact the writer: eskrapits@citizensvoice.com

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